US Debt Ceiling Coming Fast!

This ought to bring a few "Hoots & Hollers"!

Well, I've been viewing several different forums with the same central theme trying to decide how to contribute to this thread. I know that all Governments need to wean themselves from the non appropriated funds spigot if we are to even dream of balancing the budget; I personally don't believe it prudent to just "turn off the spigot". Point being, it took along time to get here, it'll take a little longer to get back unless we want them to "tax us to wellness".

Prior to 1962 many entitlement, program, budgets were fenced and couldn't be touched by hungry politicians or their cronies. That year Johnson "raided" the Social Security "pot" as a temporary, stop gap measure and opened a whole Pandora's box of problems. Congress perceived use of the funds as a panacea for funding many special interests and continued un-fencing formerly untouchable funds. The biggest problem was that the temporary stop-gap measures didn't deter the "Great Society" from increasing its appetite for gobbling up more funds. I think the Railroad Employees were the only ones to successfully keep their retirements fenced and to this day are self sustaining (I could be wrong). Not only that, today, social security and federal retirement wages are a good percentage of why we have to float loans. They used to be self sustaining, not anymore. Thank you all you great American Politicians; you couldn't wait to get your hands on all that money. (And no I wasn't old enough to vote back then...I couldn't vote until the year I returned from Viet Nam.)

(By the way, I hear a lot of folks saying that it was easier to float paper for all those programs because in those years the population was strong and GDP could sustain the interest! Yup that paper was probably written by the same guy that wrote the one that stated it was cheaper to move our manufacturing base out of the country and promote a more global economy. What was it that Ross Perot once said, "that sucking noise you hear is all the jobs going south of the boarder.")

I know we all want to point a finger at what the "Government" has done. But guess what; when you point one finger, there's three pointed back at you. Yup we put those jerks in office and voted for them year after year while their special interests "suckled" on the non appropriated "spigot". I guess we were hoping for the trickle down effect to take care of us little guys. I Guess after we pulled our head out of the sand, we finally learned the real problem associated with deficit spending. To bad it took the worst economic down turn since the great depression to get us to wake up.

I've decided to hold my precious metal positions until after May 16th. (Oh by the way, if you haven't read, they may have enough to extend the deadline until July, but no longer.) The only thing we can do now is hold on for a wild ride and write our representatives "inspiring" them to put together a realistic budget. While "The Sound and Fury" may make you feel good for a while, it's going to take real work to get our Representatives to start looking out for the country's interests and not their own.

I think we may have made a real start after seeing the number of Freshmen in Congress after the last election. In 2012, I believe you'll see a lot more. We have a long way to go. Write your representatives!

I apologize for being so verbose.

I have a bad feeling about this mess.

The economy is heading for the toilet. The silver surge is going to be gaining lots of attention. I'm sure investors are raising money to increase mining operations. I think silver will really move, simply because it is within the means of all investors.

What concerns me the most:

China stopped exporting silver. At some point the profit margin will be so great, they will start exporting again. How can they afford not to? When China does start exporting, they will flood the market. This could be bad for lots of folks getting in late.

With all that being sad, I still buying alittle silver here and there.

Very well thoughtout post carmykle.


Just to play devil's advocate, what would have to be done in order for PM's to drop in price? like you mentioned, it will definitely be a long time before the debt is going to even decrease, let alone be paid off. Stronger economy?

I must say it is interesting times. I'm north of the USA, and its strange to see our dollar higher above parity to the greenbacks.

It's definitely a good time to be Canadian.

What's frustrating isn't so much that we've gotten ourselves into this mess, but that the political leadership in Washington appears to be happy to keep us there. The Dems believe that a government shutdown is good, because most people will blame the Republicans; the Republicans, on the other hand, can't simply do nothing, as the only reason they control even the house is due to the Tea Party, who demands action on spending.

My fear is that the same calculus will exist when it comes to extending the debt ceiling. The Democrats will act to ensure the ceiling does not get raised, so as to blame the Republicans, and the Republicans will not budge on their insistence that any raise is coupled with meaningful, legitimate spending cuts.

Meanwhile, the white house continues to apply political pressure on the Fed to keep printing money, since the only way Obama gets reelected is if the economy strengthens, and it doesn't matter if the economy is living on borrowed time, so long as he continues his grip on power.

Almost 200 years ago, de Tocqueville predicted democracy would be unstable once one group of people realizes they can simply vote themselves the wealth of another group. I can't help but think his ghost is now saying "I told you so".

But the real value of gold does inflate and deflate. The average income of Americans (however you care to measure it) has barely budged in the last 10 years. But gold has increased by over a factor of 5.

Except that the value of the dollar hasn't dropped all that much. The value of dollars is fairly well understood, and there are dollar indexes with different weightings to track. GDP is also well understood, and generally measured in Purchasing Power Parity, which factors out currency fluctuations.

The point is, the move in gold over the last 7-8 years can't be explained by moves in the dollar, in GDP, or in personal income.

On this ceiling thing, I just watched this interview with Trump, and him and the reporter debate back an forth on this so called...."Partial closing of the gov tom" (which would have direct correlation to the ceiling situation in late May, is that a correct assumption?). Could some of you wiser bus minds/economic political minds please explain to my simple brain what that means exactly in lame"man" terms, in ref to what parts of the gov exactly are closing down?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecu...irther-issue

Thanks for clearing that up a bit Wei, it is a mess any way you look at it, and it is gonna take some organized smart economic minded people working together to turn it around one would think....

From what I have heard on the radio an read, it looks like much cuts, like military not getting paid, late send outs on tax returns, and many others affected, many of which will never get paid at all....

Your point about the "jewelry culture" makes much sense and is something new to figure into the equation, as I recall some other members talking in a thread about many new middle class forming over the next twenty years, in many different parts seems like....